Friday, October 24, 2008

Friday 10/24 A.M. Quickie:Rays, RISP, CFB, NFL, NBA, More

I'm still holding out for Tim Tebow showing up at the bris today... too much to ask?

I'm not particularly triumphant about the Rays' first-ever World Series win in today's SN column. Mainly because I know that weak RISP percentages usually find the mean, although the whole "regress to the mean" theory works a lot better with a sample size larger than the 5 remaining games of this World Series.

Meanwhile, what will be the more important dynamic of the World Series: RISP or Rain? The Phillies can't convert with runners in scoring position; rain might create havoc -- or at least no off-days -- with the World Series schedule. (I'll take it; compare that to the ludicrously endless NBA playoff schedule.)

What is less believable: That the Pats aren't annoyed with Tom Brady or that NFL teams don't actively offer bounties on opposing players?

CFB This Weekend: At least 4 games with BCS implications. Weekly preview and picks coming later this morning.

I want to salute blog reader Jason Schoming: He is leading BOTH Daily Quickie Reader picks games -- NFL and CFB. That is a hell of a double. In his honor, I will pick Ohio State to beat his beloved Penn State, thereby ensuring that Penn State wins via Quickie jinx.

I'm working on my NBA preview ("Shallowest. Preview. Ever.") for next week's season start. Any clever ideas for Finals predictions? I can't stand the thought of picking the Lakers and Celtics, like basically everyone else. How about the Rockets winning the West? Maybe the Hornets? And how about the Magic winning the East? Maybe the Pistons? Would love the input.

I have never been a fan of Lute Olson or Arizona. Can't say I'm sorry to see him go, although he WAS that program. Without an innovative pick for coach, the program will slide into irrelevancy.

Former Zona wunderkind assistant Josh Pastner has always kind of annoyed me (for no good reason, really -- he's sort of a Theo Epstein/Jon Daniel/Andrew Friedman of college hoops), but hiring the thirtysomething longtime Olson assistant (now a Calipari assistant at Memphis -- that's not a sketchy place to learn or anything) would inject the program with energy -- and much-needed youth.

1 comment:

You and your readers normally might not be interested in a NY Times op-ed piece about health care written by Newt Gingrich and John Kerry. Perhaps you'd find it more intriguing if I told you that Billy Beane was a co-author and baseball was a running theme in it.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.